


An Adventure in Assassination Plots

by turianjournalist16



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12855393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turianjournalist16/pseuds/turianjournalist16
Summary: Slight AU where Sara didn't go into a coma when her pod was damaged but still ended up stuck on the Nexus. One day, Sara receives a mysterious email saying that some group was going to kill her brother. Que her dragging around Kandros as she tries to figure out who it is and what they're up to. Can she solve it before it's too late?Most of this has nothing to do with canon...





	1. Chapter 1

Adventures in Andromeda ended for Sara as soon as her pod was damaged during the Hyperion’s arrival. It wasn’t anything mental. She’d simply missed Habitat 7 and woke up to her dad being dead and her brother being pathfinder. It’d shaken her. She didn’t want to be out in the field right now. Besides, Scott had wanted her to be monitored in case there was any lasting damage. Nothing would be worse than her brain malfunctioning in the middle of a firefight, leaving Scott and whoever else was with her vulnerable while they tried to help her.  


She typed away at her computer, processing the information about the next batch of sleepers so the customs officer could be prepared once they woke up. Prodromos was only a few weeks old, but Scott was waking whole cell blocks up. This particular one was a military block. Made sense since Scott had made the first colony military based due to the Kett threat. Addison wasn’t happy, but when was she ever happy. The people in this particular block were all a few years trained, not to the extent of those already awake, but enough to not need more training. She began to sort people into categories: whose family was on a missing ark, whose was exiled, whose was dead, etc. It was monotonous. It needed to be done though.  


A small flash on the right of her screen told her she had a message, interrupting her sorting. Worrying that it was Scott telling her that something terrible had happened, she clicked on it, consequences be damned if that dick Spender walked by. Three times already she’d been screamed at by him for trying to do her job. It was even worse for other people. Especially people working for Kesh. Though, even Sara had to admit he had some balls to try to undermine that krogan. Apparently, he’d done it before.  


She gasped.  


_Dear Miss Ryder,_  


_Your brother will be dead in a week’s time. It’s retribution to your family for killing thousands of innocent people. Any attempted to warn him or interfere with our plot will result in your untimely demise. Please don’t take this personally, we only seek to kill the pathfinder. You are just another innocent bystander._  


_Love,_  


_The Only Generation_

This was just...bizarre. She stared at the screen for a moment, then took a screenshot of it before filing it back into her email. Then, she stood up, looked around to see if anyone was paying too much attention to her. Everyone seemed to be doing their normal duties. She then grabbed her pack--which held her datapad--and headed toward the bathroom, taking a detour at the last possible second to the militia HQ. It didn’t say she couldn’t warn anyone else. Kandros was reliable. Straightforward, but reliable, as Scott had said. Addison was too pissed right now, Tann was _Tann_ , and Kesh needed to rebuild the station. Kandros was head of Nexus security. 

She made a beeline for the turian, looking around to make sure she wasn’t grabbing too much attention. No one seemed to be looking. Kandros was leaning over a table, looking at what seemed to be intelligence reports since he then plotted out places on a holographic map. Sara hadn’t really seen much of him besides when she passed by here to get to her station. Even that had been at a distance. She also hadn’t really ever talked to him. Oh, this was going to be weird. Especially since her first thought when she saw him was “cute butt” not, you know, “strong military man who could probably help with threat against brother.” She felt her face go hot. Poker face. She needed to not act crazy and hysterical. 

No one stopped her from walking right up to him, pulling the datapad out of her pack. Tapping him lightly on the arm, she said, “Uh, excuse me, Kandros?”  


He jerked a little, probably not expecting any interruptions. She watched his mandibles twitch as he turned his head to her, most likely expecting some sorry recruit or unfortunate messenger from another higher up. Her cheeks felt hot again. Then, she let out an inaudible sigh of relief when he said, “Oh, you’re the Pathfinder’s sister. Is something wrong?”

Why must all turians have that voice?

“Well, I’m not sure.” She pulled up the message on her datapad and handed it to him. “I got this a few minutes ago with an anonymous email. You seemed like the person to bring this to and I didn’t know what to make of it and honestly it sounded like the guy who wrote it should be wearing a monocle and…”

She stopped herself when she realized he probably didn’t care. He read the message over a few times, mandibles kept tightly to the sides of his face. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Or maybe it was just a neutral thing. It was hard to tell a turian’s emotions, especially since she’d never really known one well. Had she read the message right? It said that her brother was going to die very plainly. She honestly imagined that the person writing this was sitting with a bunch of plans on how to assassinate Scott. Possibly with twirly mustache. 

After a few minutes, Kandros slowly put the datapad down on the table. “Are you sure you don’t know who sent this?” She shook her head. “Have you received anything like this before?” She shook her head. “Has anyone made any verbal threats to you or your brother recently?” 

“No one’s said anything to me.” She didn’t know about Scott, he probably wouldn’t tell her though. 

Kandros shook his head. She had a feeling she’d just made his day a lot harder, but at the same time it would’ve been irresponsible to ignore this. Right? “Ryder, I’ve never heard of this group. Can you wait here? I’m going to call a meeting with the others so we can assess this.”

She nodded. He made a gesture to Lieutenant Sajex to keep others away, then proceeded to go to a more secluded corner and got on his comms. Sara drummed her fingers against the table. Had she wanted to make a big deal out of this? No. Should she have known that it was probably going to be a big deal? Yeah. It was a death threat. Technically to both her and her brother, but her brother was more important to the initiative. Besides, Kandros seemed to be taking this seriously. That was a good sign. Or he was just doing this to appease some sort of protocol she hadn’t bothered to learn. 

Kandros waved her over after a few minutes. She looked around at the crowd of people in Ops before grabbing her datapad. None of them seemed to be paying any particular attention to her except for Kandros and Sajex, but they had reason to. She felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. A weird feeling came over her as she walked to him; the feeling of being watched. If anyone asked, she was just asking after her brother. Kandros would know something about that. Of course, why would she go to him? She worked with Addison. Her brother called her constantly. Kandros was an unknown to her, someone that she passed by on the way to work. But he was also head of security. Leader of the militia. He’d have more details about her brother’s whereabouts. No. No. This wasn’t weird at all. 

“We need to go to Tann’s office,” he said, sounding a little annoyed. They began to walk there, Kandros continuing to speak the entire way. “None of us have heard of the group that signed the email. Don’t be surprised if they don’t believe it’s credible.”

He said a few more things about how Tann would probably put a gag order on this since it didn’t fit with his narrative. Well, that would protect her, at least. People were looking at her now, though. It was probably because she was with one of Nexus leadership going into Director Tann’s office and that she happened to be Scott’s sister. They wouldn’t know why. It made her nervous though. Maybe she could spin it off as wanting to speak to Kandros privately or that Scott needed something? People would believe that. Maybe. 

Since the renovations, Tann’s old office was now the secretary’s desk. The young salarian woman directed them up the stairs, to the right, and then up another set of stairs. Sara hadn’t seen the pathfinder HQ yet. It was very...showy. Scott wouldn’t like it, but she could see why it was a part of the Nexus. Prodromos was already displayed proudly on the screens. A memorial to her father was by a window overlooking the still under construction part of the Nexus. She’d have to pay her respects to it some time. A display cycling through early space exploration vessels for each species was on the opposite side. Inspiring. A few couches had been set up all around. No one was her though. 

They walked up the next set of steps to see Tann and Addison already there, quietly bickering about something. Sara involuntarily moved closer to Kandros. Addison was probably going to yell at her for leaving her work before it was finished. This was important though. Stealing herself, Sara pulled the email up on her datapad so she would have proof. Kesh walked in a few moments later.  


“So, there’s been a death threat against Pathfinder Ryder,” Tann said, sounding skeptical. “May we see it?”  


Handing over the datapad, she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt as she watched them all read and re-read it. Addison put her hand to her face after she was finished. Kesh just shook her head. Tann seemed to be weighing the options. Sara continued to fidget with her shirt, completely aware of how things worked around here. There’d be a debate between these four. A debate she didn’t have the authority to stop or even be a part of. If at least two people could believe her, there might be some action. If one of those two was Tann, there was definitely going to be. She didn’t have high hopes though.  


“You received this today?” Tann asked. Sara nodded. “Hmm, I haven’t heard of this group before. Kandros?”  


The way Tann said “Kandros” grated on Sara’s ears. She heard the irritation in Kandros’s voice when he replied, “This group hasn’t surfaced in any other reports, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t credible. A lot of people are still angry.”  


Her dad once said to make sure all your bases are covered so nothing bites you in the ass. Kandros seemed to know that. It also made her feel a little warm and fuzzy inside that he at least wanted to check this out. Well, that he was actually taking time to do any of this. It was a threat. It was sent directly to her. Now she just needed a couple of these three idiots to believe her too.  


“Then what do you propose we do? Devote resources to an investigation that will probably turn up nothing?” Addison said with a wave of her hand.  


You know, she thought Addison would lighten up a little bit now that she had an actual job. Scott told her that Addison had started calling him pathfinder. That was a start. Sara didn’t pretend to know what it was like during those eighteen months. Colonies were failing, people were dying, there were revolts, and not to mention the Kett threat. Things seemed to be looking up now though. Besides, this was Scott’s life, they were talking about. Surely, a few people looking into an assassination plot wouldn’t hurt anything.  


“We should do something,” Kesh said, making Sara thankful. “There aren’t a lot of resources yet, but there’s more than what we had. If the pathfinder gets killed before any of the other arks are found, it’s not going to be good.”  


Thank you. Sara felt validated. Kesh was another person she hadn’t really spoken to. Her office was close to where Sara worked, but she always felt a little awkward dropping in unannounced or even announced. Scott had told her Kesh was nice. Said that she knew how to get things done. Sara saw now that he was right. Maybe she would drop off a box of Galaxy Swirls to her later. She’d overheard some of her coworkers talking about that.  


“We have to take into consideration certain facts.” She was really going to punch Tann. “The message was only sent to Sara Ryder, the pathfinder’s sister. It addresses her directly and also directly threatens her in some capacity. This could possibly be a scare tactic.”  


Yeah, it could be. She’d give him that. That didn’t mean it wasn’t worth looking into, dammit. “We still need to investigate this,” Kandros urged them.  


It was to no avail. “I fail to see a credible threat in this. We will not be investigating this unless we receive more information. Kandros, look into this ‘Only Generation’ group. Other than that, no one else talk about this. The last thing we need it a panic.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara takes things into her own hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm updating this now because I have three finals and three papers to get through in the next few weeks! Please leave feedback! I love feedback! Also, I'm pretty sure chapter 1 is extremely dry so I tried to make it a little funnier this time.

Sara paced the length of her friend Jim’s room, still fuming even after a few days. Tann was a complete and utter moron! Oh, we’ve never heard of this group so let’s just sweep in under the rug. Bullshit. At least he had Kandros looking into it. But, not formally. It wasn’t supposed to take any time away from important things. Like the life of her brother wasn’t important! He was the freaking pathfinder! The guy who was supposed to be saving them from complete and utter annihilation because everything that could go wrong did. She was going to shove her foot up Tann’s ass one of these days. No. She was not going to let this stand! Nope! Nope! Nope!

Jim had abandoned whatever he’d been doing on his computer to watch her. She’d met him a little while ago. He was nice enough. Said he'd been a programmer before they left for Andromeda. He worked in the docks now, though. The only reason being some ban on his file from the Milky Way. He’d never told her what it was about, but she didn’t really want to know. Andromeda was about starting over. Besides, she had a feeling that it was over something stupid like hacking a slot machine or saying something on social media that didn't agree with some politicians agenda. Nothing for her to get worked up over. 

“You know, I thought Kandros was going to straight up murder Tann after that meeting,” Sara said, smacking her foot against a table. “He told me he wasn’t going to let this go. I’m so glad there’s at least one person who isn’t a dumbass on this station.”

“I’m glad a random turian you just met has captured your heart so.” The sarcasm in Jim’s voice was painfully obvious. 

Sara felt herself turn red. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

Okay, so Kandros may have been a name she’d said multiple times in the course of relaying her story and praising the people who were actually going to do something. She wasn’t...he hadn’t...it was more like she was just grateful he wanted to help her despite whatever the director said. Kesh had offered to help too. She said she’d make sure there was no sabotage attempts at the docking bay or anywhere connected with the pathfinder. That wasn’t a direct investigation though. Kandros was the boots on the ground guy. The one who was going to do as much as he possibly could. Plus he was kind of cute. 

Not that she would admit that. 

Jim shook his head as she sat down on his bed, rubbing her big toe. “So, what are _you_ going to do?”

Sara thought for a moment. Honestly, she hadn’t thought about what she was going to do. After everything that happened, she’d resigned herself to being stuck here doing a boring job without ever having to worry about stuff like this. She couldn’t sit back though. Plan A had backfired tremendously. Plan B needed to be a showstopper. The one hit wonder that set her up for life without ever needing to make another song again. Unfortunately, she didn’t know where to start. She didn’t have any resources. Her brother would become suspicious if she asked him about looking into something. Anything she did on her computer or datapad was now monitored by Kandros, but Tann would also be looking into those. If he found out she was up to something…

A loud ding interrupted her thoughts. Jim reached over for his datapad and began to type something out. Sara remained quiet, trying to go back to her thoughts. Unfortunately, once interrupted, it was hard for her to find the thread she’d been on and continue the train. Plan B...she needed a plan B...she needed to investigate herself. Who would know about a group like the one that had contacted her? The exiles? Probably, but they were out of reach. If they had access to Initiative servers still, they probably weren’t exiles anyway.

“You know,” Jim said, putting his datapad down and swinging his chair towards her, “there’s a rave happening in an empty cryopod hold. Unregulated, no Initiative authorities meddling in it. It’s run by an asari chick named Lizeth who works in one of the med centers as a nurse. She has an ear to the ground. Best way to know who to invite to these.”

Sara looked over to him. He looked very nonchalant, like helping her investigate a possible assassination attempt was a normal Tuesday. Of course, that’s also how he always looked. Uncaring. Effortlessly perfect. Like his perfect hair and nice body was just how he was programmed; though she’d seen the hair dye packs behind his dresser, his daily fitness regimen to keep himself in shape. Jim rested his head on his hand, waiting for her to respond. How had he even known about this? 

No, she shouldn’t question this. It was a lead. “How do I find it? How do I get in?”

“Tonight’s is the one under Ops. One of Kesh’s crews just cleared out the last of the wreckage from the arrival. I mean,” he stretched, looking over to the door as if he was expecting someone to hear their conversation, “it’s pretty risky. I heard Addison sleeps in her office and Kandros never sleeps. You get there through a side door near the transport stop.”

Huh. A rave underneath Ops? He was right, risky. About as risky as sending a threatening email to her. They would know her wraith. She excitedly stood up. Oh, she was going to need a disguise so no one would recognize her. If she hadn’t heard about this before, it was probably because they were worried about the Pathfinder’s sister ratting them out. As if. Back during her time studying Prothean ruins, she’d learned the importance of underground parties. It was the only way people stayed sane. Besides, how else could you sleep with someone you work with without the brass catching wind of it.

She almost laughed when she remembered her last encounter before her dad’s AI research became public. That poor turian...oh what was his name? Janus? Julius? It didn’t matter. They were both curious and he wanted to blow off some steam before some raid. Man, they’d both squeezed into a broom closet. She remembered the music reduced to the bass behind the door, the laughter when one of them brought up the idea of when of their superiors finding them. After that encounter, she’d needed to sneak medigel for the chaffing. It’d been a great night though. She’d become more open to the idea of dating someone who wasn’t human, though she was a lot more partial to turians. Her brother said she was a freak for it. Not that he had any room to talk. Scott had had that crush on that one batarian man when he was out patrolling the Traverse. 

Jim leaned forward a little bit, something of an expectant smile creeping onto his face. Sara didn’t notice though. “Just say ‘when all is well in the kingdom’ to the bouncer and wear a helmet that covers your face. Maybe you should bring a friend though. Strength in numbers and all. I don’t want you getting hurt in any way.”

What a great idea! Who would she ask though? Jim was a great friend and she didn’t want to put him in harm’s way. Plus, she knew he didn’t know how to fight. An embarrassing night at Vortex had taught her that, despite him saying she just remembered it wrong. She didn’t really know anyone else. Wait...Kandros was already looking into this. He knew how to fight, he knew what to look for, and he was already willing to work with her. Excellent. He was excellent.

She jumped up, running over to Jim and giving him a hug. “Thank you! I’m heading to Ops right now! Kandros will want to be there for this!”

The expression on Jim’s face faltered. It looked shocked but, if she were paying closer attention, almost angry. Before he could say anything, she was already out the door. She waved goodbye to his two roommates out in the living room before running out into the bright hallway, almost crashing into a tired looking asari. Not even giving her eyes a moment to adjust, she bounded down the hall towards the transport station. Oh, this was just like the vids. She was going to figure this whole thing out and be hailed a hero that saved her brother’s life. Yes! Wow, she hadn’t felt this excited in ages. 

The transport ride seemed to drag on for eternity. It didn’t help that a couple of teenagers (one turian and one human) seemed hell-bent on being as obnoxious as possible. The only use the Initiative had for kids right now, though, was odd jobs that weren’t too dangerous. She noticed the human had burn scars on his arms. The turian kid’s left hand seemed to be shaking every time he went to do anything. She figured they were acting out because no one was paying attention to them otherwise, that everyone expected them to just take what was being given to them. Every part of this expedition seemed to have fallen apart. 

Finally, the transport screeched to a halt and she hopped off. A security guard got on as she was leaving and she could hear him scolding those kids as she walked away. Ops was still bustling as usual. Kandros was looking over some reports on his omnitool, mandibles twitching on occasion. Sara walked over, feeling as if she was being watched. Looking around, she saw no one paying attention to her though, just like before. If these freaks had gotten into the cameras somehow...oh, there’d be nothing left of any of them. She didn’t like people playing with her anxiety. 

Kandros happened to look up when she was walking over and waved at her to follow him to a more private place. It was a small room that seemed to have a desk, though it seemed to be more of a dumping ground for datapads. He shut the door behind her. God, he was tall. She was short, that was very true, but he made her look like a child. All turians did. That’s what happens when you stick someone who was five foot something next to someone who was seven foot something. She wasn’t even on the higher end of being five foot something...Scott had been way too happy about that when they’d stopped growing. He’d finally had something to lord over her since she’d always had the fact that she’d been born first. 

“There’s been nothing so far on this ‘Only Generation’ group.” He did air quotes around the name. “I did a vid call with your brother a little while ago. Everything seems fine. Though, he just made first contact with a species called the Angara. He’s sending us the reports. Says he should be back soon.”

Of course Scott was the one to make first contact with a new species. “That’s good. I think.”

Kandros shook his head. “I’m sorry. Maybe Tann was right and the threat was just a prank.” Oh no. Not him too. “Kesh hasn’t seen anyone acting suspicious and no one’s been able to find anything about them.”

“Um, it wouldn’t exactly be a _secret organization_ if finding them was easy,” Sara said, sounding a little annoyed. “We are not giving up on this.”

The response was curt and Kandros seemed to bristle at it. He probably wasn’t used to anyone but Tann talking to him like this, especially not some woman working for Addison. Where was this turian work ethic she’d heard so much about? Giving up after a few days? Nope. Either he was going to help her or by God she was going to have to do everything herself. And she was going to drag him along. Yup. He was not getting out of it that easily. Though, maybe she should try a softer approach next time. Him being mad at her would muddy things up. Scott was coming back soon though. They didn't have a lot of time.

“I came here because I think I found a lead,” she said, making his mandibles twitch. “It’s a long shot and I’m pretty sure it’s breaking about seventy rules and one contractual agreement but it just might work.” She lowered her eyes to the floor. “Please help me.”

With a sigh, he nodded. “What’s the lead?”

Not trusting him to use this as a way to shut down this rave, possibly scare away any possible leads, she said, “Meet me at my apartment in four hours! I’ll explain everything then, I swear! Bring your helmet!”

With that, she bolted out of his office, leaving him baffled. Nailed it. All she needed to do now was figure out where she can get a helmet without people asking too many questions. Wait. She still had her helmet from when she was still a recon specialist. That could work. Then again, the helmet thing could be because Jim was being an ass and wanted her to look stupid. She guessed she was going to find out.


	3. Chapter 3

Sitting on her bed, Sera watched an old Earth vid called _Spectral_ while waiting for Kandros to come. It was a great way to get her mind off the idea that he wasn’t going to go, that he’d only agreed to be polite. He’d said it himself, he didn’t find any evidence to believe that this was a credible threat. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d just agreed to her plan back there just to humor her; it’d be a way to get her to not go and forget about this entire thing. There was something about him though...she _knew_ he would be here tonight and that he would continue helping her despite how crazy this seemed. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking…  


A knock on the door made her jump up from her bed. She quickly turned off the vid and dashed to the door, straightening her outfit and making sure her hair looked good before answering. Why was she doing that? One of the stipulations of this underground rave was that they needed to wear helmets, no one was going to see her hair except Kandros. Surely he wouldn’t care what her hair looked like. Would he? The turian back in the Milky Way hadn’t seemed to really care, except when he found out how soft it was and started burying his face in it. What did turians even like? It wasn’t like there’d been a class where people gave a broad overview of what each species finds attractive. Well, they were probably as diverse as humans in that area so that wouldn’t even help. No. No. This wasn’t important. She needed to focus on the mission at hand. Scott could possibly die.  


The door slid open to reveal Kandros. She was not prepared. He, for once, was out of the armor that he’d worn every time she’d seen him. Instead, he was wearing one of those outfits with the half-jackets a lot of turians seemed to like. It was white and blue, the color scheme most of the turians in the initiative seemed to favor. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was his casual uniform, much like her long sleeve ensemble that she normally threw her jacket over. Whatever it was, it accentuated all the parts that made turians look very nice. It also made her realize that Kandros was built. Armor made everyone look like that, even the recruits, but now she could see that Kandros’s didn’t seem to be exaggerating anything. He was still standing like a military man though. Arms behind his back, straight and tall, like he was waiting for a higher-up to start barking orders at him.  


He was making an almost silent hum that she could have sworn she’d heard before. “You look nice,” he said. “Did you...uh...change your hair?”  


“Oh, uh,” she blushed, “yeah, I did. I cut it a few hours ago.”  


She’d been wanting to change it ever since she woke up. An out with the old, in with the new sort of deal. Ever since she was a little girl, her hair had been long and usually always up in a ponytail. Her mom had loved to put it up for her. When she woke up, she knew she wanted a change. It’d help with...everything going on in her head. She just couldn’t decide what she wanted to do with it. Dying it seemed like a temporary solution that could possibly be disastrous. No, cutting it would be the only option. If she was going on a mission to save her brother, she might as well emulate her childhood hero as well. So, she got it cut like Jane Shepard’s.  


Kandros stared for a moment longer until he seemed to realize where he was. Snapping back, he followed her gesture to enter. He strode in, placing his helmet on the counter. She did her best not to obviously stare at his backside as she followed after him. Funny. She hadn’t told him to come dressed casually. In all honesty, she’d expected him to come dressed in his armor if he came at all. Just saying he needed a helmet should have probably told him to bring his whole arsenal with him. Hmmm...she didn’t have time to think about this right now. They needed to get down to business.  


“Okay,” she said as he turned to face her, “here’s the plan. And the situation. I was informed by an unnamed source that there was going to be a rave happening underneath Ops--”  


“Are you joking? How in the--”  


She shushed him. “Questions after. The rave is being run by some asari named Lizeth who might know something about this ‘Only Generation’ or whatever group. We need to find her, ask her if she knows, and then get out of their before anyone figures out who we are. I was told we wear our helmets there so that has the face thing covered. Luckily, no one really knows my voice. Your voice is pretty...well known. Pretty well known.” Nailed it. “So, I’ll leave what you want to do about that up to you.”  


“That seems like a good lead…” he said slowly. “You basically want me here for support?”  


Sara nodded. “Yes. You’re the only guy on this station I would want by my side right now.”  


Did she...did she really just say that out loud? She almost smacked herself. His mandibles twitched slightly and his subvicals were letting out that same almost silent hum as when she’d answered the door. What did that hum mean? Maybe she could ask Vetra’s sister, Sid. They really didn’t know each other well, but Scott knew Vetra. It wouldn’t be weird. She would just need a way to figure out how to describe it for her. It was low and almost dream-like. Like he was imagining something pleasant.  


He held her gaze for a moment before saying, “I’m with you. Let’s go.”  


She almost died inside, but, like any good Ryder, held her composure. By turning completely red, stammering that she just needed to grab her own helmet, then rushing into her room. No. That couldn’t have been...the way he said it...she silently screamed. Focus. She needed to focus. Scott’s life was more important than whatever dumpster fire she was trying to make sense of. This was probably just her reading too much into things. After all this was over, Kandros would probably go back to being a guy she saw on her way to work. A really cute guy. One that had helped her even though she seemed like a crazy person. Dammit, focus.  


The helmet she’d finagled from requisitions was actually her own. It’d been gathering dust for a few weeks now. She regarded the custom paint job that Scott had done before they left the Milky Way as a surprise. It was a swirly pattern of purples that matched the color of the dress she was wearing. He’d said he was inspired by a quarian he met. No one had seen it yet. She held it under her arm before heading back out to meet Kandros, who had been admiring some of the photographs of places she’d been to in the Milky Way.  


“You ready?” Sara asked with a shy smile, her heart racing at the fact she was about to do an undercover mission.  


************  


The entrance to this rave thing was guarded by a human in full APEX armor. She seemed to be trying to move people along as quickly as possible, but some were having trouble remembering the answer to the question. Like Jim had said, everyone was wearing some sort of helmet that hid whoever they were. Some helmets were for deep space exploration, others were tinted welding helmets given to maintenance teams. The helmets seemed out of place As it were, she couldn’t tell who anyone was. Which was annoying because she couldn’t turn around to tell the idiot behind her to stop tapping his fingers against the wall. She didn’t want it to end up being someone she knew. Surprisingly, the hallway was completely silent save the hum of the engines running the Nexus and the sound was beginning to grate on her ears.  


She shut her eyes, hoping everything would go just as the scenario in her head had gone. They get in, act like they’re there to party, find Lizeth, get the information they needed, and get out to...figure out what to do next. Yeah. No hitches. Nothing going extremely, horribly, disastrously wrong like in the vids. Just a simple information grab. And maybe there’d be good music too.  


A tap on her shoulder made her open her eyes. Kandros was motioning for her to step forward towards the bouncer, keeping quiet since this bouncer most definitely knew his voice. Sara took a deep breath, hoping she remembered the password Jim had told her. Worse comes to worst, she was sure Kandros could manage something. If things got even worse than that then...well, they could always punch out the bouncer or something. Maybe. Or seduce the bouncer. That would be fun. It would depend on a lot of things though and she wasn’t sure if she could pull it off. For now, she just focused on step one.  


The bouncer did a quick once over of the two of them. Then, in a low voice, she asked, “Will the people ever be happy?”  


“When all is well in the kingdom.” Sara felt her heart thudding in her chest. Thank God she was wearing a helmet, otherwise, it would probably be very easy to tell that she wasn’t exactly comfortable.  


The bouncer nodded and opened the door that lead into a dark hallway with a pulsing white light. Without even thinking, Sara grabbed Kandros’s hand and walked in, feeling her stomach drop a little when the door slid shut behind them. A soft thudding from a song’s bass was the only thing that let her know they were in the right place and had not entered some weird horror movie. As they walked further in, the music got louder. The lights were slowly becoming more colorful and vibrant and the sounds of people began adding to the ruckus. Sara tried to control her breathing. Only a few more feet until they figured out if she was being duped or not.  


She felt Kandros stiffen as they entered the vast chamber that had once housed thousands of cryopods. It had been rigged with party lights and sound systems. There were tables and chairs “borrowed” from storage set up for people to lounge. A DJ station had been set up near the manual cryo controls. Most of all, it was just filled with people. Sara wouldn’t be surprised if a quarter of the station’s current population was crammed in here, bouncing off of each other in a sweaty, drunken haze. Everyone was out of uniform except a few militia members who were probably there to keep the peace. The colors from the lights seemed to die on their weapons. If she catch more than a few glimpses of them as her and Kandros stiffly walked towards an empty table in the middle, she would have had a chance to investigate them further. Something about their armor was...off.  


Kandros let go over her hand when they found a free spot. “How did we miss this?”  


“Probably because no one wants a good time getting shut down. There are jokes about upper management and fun having, mainly ending with the killing of said fun.” Sara said.  


Kandros let out a slightly agitated noise. “Clearly, I need to get out more.”  


“Well, I mean if--Oh something’s happening!”  


A spotlight went to one of the walkways above them as an asari woman walked out. The two of them actually had a good vantage point. She wasn’t wearing a helmet. Instead, she was wearing one of those head things that seemed to just be glued onto an asari’s head. She didn’t care who knew who she was. Cocky. Kandros seemed to stiffen even more. The asari held out her arms like she was a politician addressing an adoring public, the sheer, red sleeves of her dress dripping off of them. Sara wondered what she actually did on this station.  


“Hello, my fellow survivors!” A cheer went through the crowd as the music was quieted. “On our 15th party, I would like to pay my respects to those who did not live to see Heleus. The people who did not live to see their families and friends awoken! Those still waiting for arks to show up! They will not be forgotten! We will survive and spit into Heleus’s eyes! Together! The lines our species drew in the Milky Way will not sway us here!”  


More cheering. This woman would make a good politician, or at least Sara thought so. At least she could stir a crowd. The music turned back up as the woman departed from the walkway. It seemed almost more intense than it had been. The atmosphere was more desperate, more needing to prove something else other than just having a good time. Sara looked around as people danced. It was a mesmerizing conglomeration with no regard for personal space. In fact, the only thing that seemed out of place was the coldness of the helmets everyone wore. She wished she had a camera on her.  


Kandros leaned over to her. “Do you think the woman speaking was Lizeth?” Sara shrugged. He continued, “I think I’ve seen her go into Tann’s office before, but I don’t know who she is.”  


Before Sara could respond, a woman behind them said, “Hello! Marisol said that there were two newcomers here tonight.”  


Kandros’s hand instinctively reached for a gun that wasn’t at his side. They both turned around to see the asari that had spoken on the walkway. Up close, her dress turned out to be made out of that red, sheer material with a dark red tank top and skirt underneath to appease conservative species. Her skin was dark blue and the markings around her face were a more powdery bue. The strange headwear was silver. She was smiling warmly at them. Around her, the militia guards were keeping their focus on the group as if protecting some dignitary.  


“How did you--”  


“Voice recognition.” She said. “While we don’t use to identify people, it lets us know when anyone new joins us. We have to be careful, you know, certain parties would like to shut us down.”  


Sara blinked behind the tinted glass of her helmet. “You--you don’t have to worry about that from us Ms…”  


“Call me Lizeth,” she said, then motioned for them to follow. “Let’s speak somewhere privately, Miss Ryder. Your companion is welcome to join us.”  


Sara looked over to Kandros who’s hand was twitching at his side. Well, this wasn’t good...she just straight up...she was their only lead. Nodding to Kandros, she followed the asari to a small set of couches behind a makeshift sound barrier that was almost invisible in the flashing lights. Only a few of the guards were in there, keeping watch so no uninvited guests would come in. Sara, Kandros, and Lizeth sat down, Lizeth motioning for the guard to shut the door as they did so.  


Lizeth crossed one ankle over the other and folded her hands on her lap. “So, Miss Ryder, why did you come here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I got sidetracked with work and the holidays!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, there's gonna be depictions of violence, including gun violence, in this chapter.

Sara took a deep breath. Okay, she’d watched every episode of Law and Order: Citadel and knew somewhat how to get information out of people. This would be a piece of cake. Lizeth didn’t seem to be a hostile witness unwilling to cooperate with them as of right now. Sara just couldn’t outright say what she was looking for in case some unsavory characters were listening in. It wouldn’t be good if “The Last Generation” were to follow through with their threat. Plus, she’d gotten Kandros involved. If this group was willing to take out a pathfinder, who's to say they wouldn’t take out the head of the militia.  


No, she needed to play this cool.  


“Well, a friend of mine said that you had a way of _knowing things_ ,” Sara said, wiggling her eyebrows under her helmet. “Like how you knew who I was even though you don’t use voice recognition for that kind of stuff.”  


Call her a construction worker because she was nailing it. Lizeth sat back, smiling like a lawyer who knew you wanted to cut a deal. Or, at least, that’s how it was with Law and Order. Sara didn’t actually have a lot of experience with lawyers. Either way, this seemed like a good thing, though Sara had a weird feeling she was going to be asked a favor in exchange for the information. Oh boy. She didn’t have a lot of money. Kandros probably didn’t have a lot of money. Her connection to Scott was her most valuable card she could play. Unless Kandros consented to using his position for a favor. Which would never happen because, in Sara’s opinion, Kandros was a good, honorable noodle who would never do anything like that.  


Lizeth said, “Your friend was right. I can’t setup my parties without having an ear to the ground, so to speak. I knew you were coming just the same way I knew you were bringing your boyfriend, a.k.a. the Head of Nexus Security.”  


She heard the couch creak as Kandros sat up a little straighter. Oh boy, the militia was going to be having a huge purge because of this, that she was sure of. She made a mental note to write an apology to everyone there. Not wanting to take her eyes off the asari just in case, she only felt the fabric shift as his arm moved behind her. Was he being...no...nope...he was probably just uncomfortable or something. Nothing to see here folks, move along to the next attraction on Sara’s personal dumpster fire.  


“Head of Nexus Security? Pfft, no. Why would I be stupid enough to--” Sara started, but then saw how unamused Lizeth looked. In quiet voice, she just said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”  


Lizeth shrugged. “Uh-huh. Now, I believe you two have something to ask me. Or is this just some weird foreplay before what the rumors say would be a very fun night.” Sara and Kandros both looked at each other before looking back at Lizeth, who was giggling. “Don’t worry, I doubt any of them are true.”  


Moment of truth time. Sara took a deep breath. “I was wondering if you would happen to know about a certain group called ‘The Only Generation.’”  


Sara had given up on on subtlety. She didn’t have the patience for it and some of the guards were starting to give her the creeps. Nudging Kandros, she pointed to the fact that the people in uniform seemed to have multiplied, surrounding the little couches they were on. There was a nagging feeling in her head that something bad was about to happen, but she hoped this was just her being paranoid about everything. She’d be lying if she said her nerves didn’t have her on edge right now. It was really helpful to just have Kandros there though, he was weirdly helping her feel safer. Like, at least she had someone she knew she could trust at her back. Now, if only she could get a hold of his hand again…  


“Hmm,” Lizeth said, putting her finger to the bottom of her lip, “yes. Yes, I have heard about them. They’re small and a nuisance, like insects but if you squished them with your boot, you’d get exiled. I’ve had to throw them out of my parties many times for spreading their ignorant rhetoric.”  


Sara felt her heart leap. Yes! She wasn’t crazy and she wasn’t wasting Kandros’s time. “Do you know anything specific about them? Where they meet? Whose in on--”  


Lizeth held up her hand. “First things first, I want a verbal reassurance from your boyfriend that my parties will not be shut down and no one will be arrested for attending. Oh and that no other Nexus leader will now about it.”  


Kandros gently tugged at Sara’s arm. Knowing he probably wanted to have a private conversation, she tuned the comms inside her helmet to a private channel and leaned in, their heads almost touching. Honestly, the private channel would muffle the noise coming out of either of their helmets but she was more than a bit paranoid about that. She knew Kandros was going to have a problem with Lizeth’s request as soon as the asari said it, but they were really, really close to figuring something about this whole mess out.  


“I don’t know if I can keep that promise, Sara.” Of course that would be the first thing he’d say. “This place is exactly what the Initiative doesn’t need right now. It’s a proverbial breeding ground for rebellions.”  


“But, if we don’t find out about who’s going to kill Scott and he does get offed, then the Initiative’s dead.” Sara pleaded.  


Kandros shook his head. “Sara…”  


“Please, Tiran. I was asleep when my dad died, at least I can do something about Scott now.”  


There was a long pause, then a sigh as Tiran clicked back over to the open channel so he could speak to everyone in the room. “Neither I nor the militia will shut the parties down and the other Nexus Leaders will not find out about these gatherings from me. Anyone in attendance will not be arrested for violating Nexus or Initiative law. Happy?”  


“Very,” Lizeth smiled.  


Sara could have hugged Tiran or...jumped for joy. Yeah, that was totally what she would want her other option to be. In any case, she settled for a closed-mouthed squeal that only Tiran could hear because she hadn’t switched over into an open channel yet. This was it. They were finally going to figure this out and Tiran had probably just broken about fifty rules to help her. Oh, she hadn’t felt this happy since, well, since he’d actually shown up at her apartment a few hours ago. In fact, she was feeling two kinds of happies right now. One was the happiness that, yes, they were finally getting proof. The other was that Tiran was doing this for her. Oh man. He was probably just wanting to get to the bottom of this, yeah, that’s it. But...he also hadn’t been willing until she asked and...that was...that sure was something. Oh man.  


Lizeth continued as Sara clicked her comms back over. “This group, they exist, they have access to weapons, and they have nothing to do with the exiles. From what I heard, they’re too ‘noble’ to ally themselves with them. At any rate, I heard if you want to get in touch with them you have to go to where the gateway meets the head and--”  


_**Bam!**_ Sara felt something hot and sticky splatter against her bare arms and on the front of her dress. Tiran ran in front of her and tackled one of the militia. She heard the snap of the militia’s neck and then felt the coldness of the pistol Tiran was handing her. It snapped her into action. She dove behind the couch and fired at the militia-people-turned-enemies, covering Tiran so he could get to safety. Neither of them had shields. There was minimal ammo. She knew there’d been something off about these guards, but, dammit, it hadn’t seemed important. They needed to get out of here.  


Tiran grabbed her hand and lead her out of the sound barrier. Outside was chaos. The music had stopped and people were screaming, scrambling to get it out. Guards were firing into the air, trying to disperse the crowd so they could find their two targets. Pulling her along, Tiran pushed his way through. The deeper into the crowd they got, the harder it would be to shoot them. Sara kept her stolen pistol at the ready. Tiran had an assault rifle that he was keeping at his side. They’d definitely be found if the enemy saw that.  


Enemies were closing in as people tried to get out through the tiny exit. Sara tried her best to hold onto Tiran’s hand, but she was getting shoved on all side. One minute she was clinging to him for dear life, the next minute, they were seperated, her screaming for him as they moved apart. She was lost in the crowd. Being pushed around like a swimmer caught in the undertow. She pushed back, but it was no use. Dammit. She hated being small. The best chance to get out of here now was follow the flow of panicked people. Trying not to panic, she prayed that they would both make it out okay.  


After a few terrifying minutes of shots being fired and people trying to funnel out, she felt her hand get grabbed by someone. “Tiran! Thank Go--” She realized the person whose hand she was holding had five fingers, not three. “Oh fu--”  


She felt herself get pulled out of the crowd and thrown onto the cold, metal floor. The pistol went flying in the opposite direction. Standing over her like an antagonist in a bad action movie was a human man in a pinstripe white suit and a jet black helmet. On the sleeve of the suit was a stitched on patch with the symbol of the Initiative X’ed through in red. That must be...oh this is not good. He had a gun pointed directly at her. On the ground, covered in asari blood, and about to be shot was not how she planned on this evening going...and she was absolutely pissed about that.  


In a voice that had gone through several layers of distortion, the man said, “Sara Ryder, you were warned not to inter--AHH!”  


She dug her heel right into his exposed calf, making him lose grip on the heavy rifle.“‘Fear me! I’m a big, scary terrorist man! Rah bah bah!’” She stood up and kneed him in the groin. “Next time, shoot first.”  


Picking up the rifle he’d let fell out of his hand after her second attack, then proceeded to whack him in the chest with it to send him sprawling. She debated on shooting him directly between his eyes like she’d been trained to do, but thought better of it. These jerks killed their one lead--and an innocent one at that--then she was going to use one of them as her new source of information. She took the rifle and shot him in the leg so he couldn’t run. HIs red blood began to soak the white fabric.  


Satisfied with that, she kept the rifle at the ready and scanned the room. It was mostly empty. There were a few stragglers but the gunfire seemed to have stopped. People were on the ground but she didn’t know enough to call them bodies yet, she didn’t want to know. The guy she’d shot was groaning. There was no sign of Tiran. She needed to regroup with him, make he made it out and that he was okay. They needed to figure out what to do. Tiran would probably need to conduct a full investigation of the militia though; there’s no way these people would have been able to get this close otherwise.  


Just as she was about to leave, a loud crack rang through the air. She didn’t even feel the pain. Her world just began to tunnel into blackness. The last thing she remembered was someone calling her name as everything faded from existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Finally updated again! Thank you for reading! I appreciate all of you!


	5. Chapter 5

Sara came to with a horrible pain in her side. Groaning, she opened her eyes to blinding lights obscuring an already blurry figure standing over her. Wait... she bolted upright, prepared to fight whoever it was. A strong hand grabbed her wrist as her vision slowly came into focus and she saw that it was Harry. She looked around to see that she was in the Hyperion’s medbay. There was an I.V. hooked into her arm that looked to have been stopped. Injured people took up a majority of the beds that were usually reserved for people just waking up. Nurses and doctors alike were darting around trying to keep people stable. She scanned the room for Tiran, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. A sick feeling welled up inside her. She hoped he made it out alright.  


“Good, you’re awake. I was afraid that you were going to end up in a coma again.” Harry said, letting go of her wrist and scanning her over. “I thought I told you not to get yourself into trouble.”  


Sara shook her head. “Where’s Tir--Kandros? He was with me in the club and then there were shots fired and people were running and--and--I shot a guy in the leg! He was trying to kill me! Is he in custody? Tiran should’ve put him into custody. Asshole monologued and everything before he tried to kill me! There were--”  


“Hush before I put you back under.” Harry said, watching her heart rate increase drastically for a few seconds. “Kandros carried you in here and I treated him for a stab wound in his arm. Other than that he’s fine and back at the Militia HQ...despite my opinion.”  


Sara slumped back. He’d come back for her and possibly got hurt in the process...this was all her fault. She should have known this was going to happen. But, why hadn’t he stayed to see if she was okay? She knew the answer was probably duty or some other BS turians had ingrained in them, but she was more than a little hurt about that. Oh, why should she care? This wasn’t the thing she should be worried about. She should go see if he was alright and if anything had come out of what had happened. It hadn’t been a futile effort. They had a hint of where this group was meeting and they needed to get on that. Stat. They’d lost a lot of time with the attack and now they had been found out. Plans would change. Meeting places would change. Oh, they needed to hurry.  


Determined, she attempted to get off of the bed, but Harry stopped her. “Oh no, you’re staying here until I’m certain you’re going to be alright. Then there’s a few people who’d like to speak with you.”  


“But--”  


Harry scanned her over again. “I’m not going to tell Scott his sister got seriously injured because I let her run off when she wasn’t fully healed.”  


Defeated, she folded her arms over her chest, wincing at the pain as the adrenaline faded. Harry continued to run diagnostics on her until satisfied, then he went over to a nurse who was taking blood from another patient and told her to do something else. The nurse disappeared from the room and Harry finished taking the sample for her. Sara watched the screen displaying pictures of Andromeda’s promised golden worlds, wondering what to do next. What she needed to do was regroup with Tiran and explain what happened. The guy she’d shot was probably running around somewhere, they needed to find him and flip him against the other members of his group.  


Scott better be thankful for all this. A smile settled itself on her face as she thought about the fact that he’d owe her so much. Yeah, he was saving the Initiative, but she was saving his life. Well, she and Tiran. He couldn’t save anyone if he was dead. In fact...no, she couldn’t entertain that scenario. Worst case scenarios weren’t her cup of tea. That’s why she needed to stop this before anything else happened to her family. If spending more time with Tiran was a byproduct, she wouldn’t complain, but she needed to see this through.  


The nurse re-entered with--Sara let out a loud groan. Tann looked utterly pissed; Kesh and Addison weren’t there. Harry saw him and stopped what he was doing to beeline over to the director. The nurse looked utterly terrified. Sara couldn’t blame her; Tann had probably been screaming since the incident and Harry now looked like someone had insulted his mother. It seemed like Harry had only instructed her to tell him Sara was awake. He wouldn’t let him yell at her only a few minutes after she’d woken up. It was against every fiber of his being. Honestly, she had to stifle a laugh since he looked like he was about ready to brawl with Tann. It was a fantastic image to entertain.  


Unfortunately, the director pulled the authority card. Sara did her best to sit up a little straighter, but the pain would only let her do so much. Oh, he’d get in earful from her. Let him try to say this was her fault, she now had evidence to back her claims up. And, she still had Tiran on her side. Trump card. Even if he wasn’t here, he’d still heard everything Lizeth said before she’d been...well before everything went to hell. He’d probably already filed a report. This salarian can blow any hot air he wants, she had facts on her side.  


“Are you bored, Sara?” Tann asked.  


She raised an eyebrow, “Um…?”  


“I ask because you specifically undermined my authority to chase down something that didn’t have any credibility.” Tann said in a clam down. “Not only that, you seduced Kandros to believe you and abandon his very important duties to help you.”  


Sara blinked. “I didn’t ‘seduce’ anybody. He did it on his own because I was right and he knew it. We even have proof--”  


“The word of someone already breaking protocol to potentially start a coup is not sufficient evidence.” Tann said. “The only good thing to come out of this is that we have several conspirators in custody that would have had access to militia and APEX armaments otherwise. So, for that, we won’t be exiling you.”  


Sara felt a little wobbly. They’d discussed exiling her for this? She’d been doing her duty as a member of the Initiative, dammit. There was someone out there trying to kill Scott and she needed to protect him. Tann can go shove this entire speech up his ass. She knew what was going on, Tiran knew what was going on, and, dammit, she might as well tell Scott now since that cat was out of the bag. This was clearly something still happening and she couldn’t just leave it. Maybe, if the leadership could get it’s head out of it’s ass and do something for once, people wouldn’t feel the need to rebel.  


Before she could say any of that, Tann said. “Sara, three people are dead, dozens are injured, and the leader of the militia is on modified duty because someone tried to tear him open with a knife. Grow up and get it out of your head that there’s some big conspiracy before even more bodies are added to the pile.  


“Since you are the Pathfinder’s sister, we can’t place you under arrest without distracting him from his very important duty,” Tann said. Sara just sat there, feeling tears well-up. “As such, you will be under a form of house arrest. You can only go between your apartment and work. Any deviation will result in the termination of your job and be placed into custody until Pathfinder Ryder can determine what to do with you.”  


They can’t do this! Scott was going to die if he did this! Through tears, she said, “Scott’s in danger! Tiran and I found evidence! If you just let us--”  


“Militia Leader Kandros requested that you not come in contact with him for the time being.” Tann said. “It was felt that he couldn’t perform his duties to full capacity with you tricking him into helping a lost cause.”  


Sara felt like that bullet had gone through her heart rather than her side. Tears were freely rolling down her face as she just stared blankly passed everyone into the void beyond the walls. Harry ran over to her, hooking up something to the I.V. and telling the director to leave. That didn’t make sense. He wouldn’t just...she thought...he’d done so much for her...why had he done everything, then? She _tricked_ him? No, she hadn’t done anything like that. He’d helped her because he wanted to. Or she’d thought so. How could she have tricked him? It wasn’t like she lied to him or “seduced him” like Tann had suggested. None of this made any sense.  


No, he was lying. Tiran wouldn’t just abandon her right now. After everything they’d been through, which--objectively--wasn’t a lot, but he wouldn’t just leave her in the hospital.Why would he not be here right now? He was working. Yeah, but he’d carried her into the hospital. Shouldn’t he at least send someone to see how she was doing? She couldn’t believe that he thought she’d tricked him, after they’d heard and seen evidence that everything was true. This wasn’t right. She had to find out for herself.  


But did she really want to risk that rejection?  


She sat there, staring at the wall for she didn’t know how long. No reason seemed to sit right with her as to why Tiran would just abandon her like this. Maybe she was being over dramatic. He was going to walk in any second and everything was going to be fine. Yeah. Everything was going to be okay. He was going to come in and he was going to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay because that’s how it was supposed to go. And she needed to stop having such intense feelings like that because they were just friends and probably wasn’t going to progress any further than that.  


A hand gently tapped her shoulder. She spun around hopefully, but tried not to deflate when she saw that it was Jim. At least he looked happy to see her. “Hey, Sara.”  


He sat down in the chair next to her bed, resting his arm and head on the railing of it. A lopsided, dopey grin was on his face. Well, at least she wasn’t alone right now. She used her hands to wipe the tears off of her face, trying to look happy to see him right now. “What are you doing here?”  


“Well, I messed up my leg at work yesterday and I was hoping the doc would give me painkillers, but then I heard you were in here.” He said, then he took her hand. “I heard that you were shot?” Sara nodded. “What kind of animal--you know what, I’m sorry that I ever sent you in there. This is all my fault and, you know what? I’m going to make it up to you. Whatever you need, just ask.”  


She shook her head. What she needed was confirmation that Tiran really though those things. “It’s fine. There’s no way you could have known. What’d you do to yourself?”  


He motioned to his right leg, which was in a brace and covered in bandages. “I was moving around some boxes, heavy boxes. Very manly things, you know? Then…” he went into a long story about how he saw something break on one of the machines and ended up saving a bunch of people. It was obviously exaggerated, but Sara needed the life. After some prompting, he admitted, “I actually tripped over my own two feet and that’s how the pipe got lodged in there.”  


“Well,” Sara said, “you’re still very brave to me.”  


They laughed. Sara’s eyes began to feel very heavy, but Jim continued talking to her until she fell asleep. It was nice, to have someone care about her like that. The entire time, her mind kept drifting over to how this should have been Tiran. She was sure of it. Someone in the universe, some higher power, had switched the timelines she was in so that Tiran hated her even though they were so close to getting answers. She’d have to speak to that someone, tell them that they’re idiots. As she went to sleep, her mind was filled with dreams of grand adventures to set herself free of this life.  


Before she was completely unconscious, however, she heard Harry ask, “How’s the gunshot wound?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The narrative is going to split between Sara and Tiran now and I hope that I can write that correctly. Thank you for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter switches to Kandros's point of view...I hope I got his voice right.

_***At the same time, in the Militia HQ***_  


Tiran was pissed. Not as pissed as when he’d found out Sloane Kelly started a rebellion and was now leading the exiles, but still very pissed. He sat, confined to his desk, signing off on dozens of arrests that had been made in the wake of the shooting two nights ago, wondering how he’d missed this. Apparently, he was blind. This wasn’t one or two people conspiring in the privacy of their own apartment, this was at least twenty militia members who’d opened fire on civilians. He was impressed by their fortitude too. Even when he’d turned a blind eye to some of the more brutal tactics of the interrogators, none of them had cracked. It was infuriating.  


Mandibles twitching, he threw the last datapad on top of the others, watching the entire pile topple over onto the floor. He grunted as he got up, putting a hand on the hastily bandages, still barely mended wound on his stomach. Some ass had tried to work the knife between his plates. Idiot didn’t know what he was doing and ended up slicing up Tiran’s unplated--and mostly unimportant--parts. This is what he gets for not wearing armor to a possibly dangerous situation. He’d really hoped that night would have turned out differently. For Sara’s sake, he’d really hoped it had turned out that this Lizeth knew nothing and that it was just a horrible prank like the others were choosing to believe. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened. Now he was incapacitated and under strict orders to not continue investigating this. Well, when Sara was feeling better, they could discuss this further. He’d checked on her last night, but she’d still been under.  


He kicked the pile of datapads on the floor before doing his best to bend over, stopping when a huge wave of pain almost caused him to fall over. This was ridiculous. Medi-gel shortage his ass; Tann probably wanted him to be as limited as possible. He stood back up right as Lieutenant Sajax opened the door. The turian woman had another stack of datapads in her arms. When she saw his sorry state, she put them on a chair and rushed over to help him. Well, this couldn’t get any worse.  


“Sir, you’re supposed to be resting.” She said, stacking the datapads up and putting them back on his desk.  


Tiran’s mandibles twitched again. “I don’t have time to rest.” He motioned to the new datapads. “What are those?”  


“Injury reports, sir. Tann’s secretary sent them over for you to sign off them. I tried to tell her you were busy, but she just stuck them on the table and left. Damn bureaucrats have no respect for us until they need something dead.”  


He knew she wasn’t wrong. Sighing, he walked slowly over to the chair and picked up those ones, ignoring the angirly concerned sound Sajax’s subvocals were making. Honestly, he was going to rip himself open again if he kept going like this. She was right to be concerned. He’d thought she was going to tear someone’s head off when he limped back in after a few hours in medbay. Unfortunately, the arrests meant he couldn’t have an extended stay and he didn’t know what the others would do if he let this go. It was bad enough he’d been caught in a fire fight at an illegal party, worse that he’d done it with Sara Ryder, and even worse that he’d been investigating something he shouldn’t. He couldn’t let things get stalled because he screwed up.  


Sajax crossed her arms over her chest as he sat back down, making pained whines that he hoped she wouldn’t be the wiser to. He wasn’t taking too many painkillers. There weren’t that many to go around and they hadn’t found a plant yet to synthesize a new one for either dextro or levo. Hopefully, Pathfinder Ryder’s potential alliance with the Angara would help that. Spirits, they needed help. Maybe they’d finally get some relief and more people would be less inclined to join terrorist groups.  


“Sir, permission to speak candidly,” Sajax said. He nodded. “How did a date with Sara Ryder end with a shooting?”  


Tiran shrugged. “It wasn’t a date, it was an intelligence mission. As you know, those things can go south fast.”  


“Right, an intelligence mission you dressed up for and put on, uh, what was it? Cologne?” The smugness in her subvocals grated on his ears as she spoke. “You know, I recognized that brand. Did not think you were that type of guy, but, if I ever had someone wear expensive stuff like that for me I’d be theirs forever.”  


Honestly, he didn’t care at this point. It was nice talking about something that wasn’t work related after two days of being screamed at or filing papers. “She didn’t notice.”  


“Of course she wouldn’t. Human noses aren’t trained to pick up that kind of scent.”  


She did have a point, one that he hadn’t thought of when he got ready that night. Of course, he also hadn’t been thinking of that when he’d first seen Sara come to the door. He hadn’t really been thinking of anything besides how great she looked. She wasn’t what he’d normally go for, but she had a passion that he loved; especially when she barged into his office demanding that he continue on this investigation with her. Tenacious. That was a word. A strange version of the word considering she also seemed skittish at times, but tenacious nonetheless.  


Tiran’s mandibles twitched. “Any word on the interrogations?”  


“Christiansen thinks one guy’s about to crack, but Orobas wants to get in there for a few swings to drive the point home.” Sajax said, then changed the subject. “Did she dress up for you?”  


“She dressed up for the mission.” He then picked up one of the datapads she’d brought in. “Tell Orobas not to go too crazy, the confession can be considered untrue if he goes too far. Let him know he can impress Christiansen in other ways.”  


Sajax nodded. “Understood. So, I heard from reports that you had your arm around Sara…”  


“Yes…” he said, hesitantly. “Tell Sergeant Aker that I want the prisoners separated from each other so they don’t try to make plans. I know it’s cramped, but we can’t let them conspire together.”  


Sajax gave him another nod. “An arm around Sara, huh, do you think the Pathfinder is going to be happy about that?”  


“What does that matter? She’s an adult capable of making her own decisions and if that decision involves letting me put my arm around her then I’m not going to stop her,” he said, kind of surprised at himself about his outburst and hearing his subvocals sound so defensive. “I don’t know if she thought it was a date, so I’m not going to say it was. That’d be wrong. We held hands and I put my arm around her. Now Lieutenant, if that’s all, you’re dismissed.”  


Sajax stood up and saluted before walking out. Tiran shook his head. Another few hours of signing off on reports and he might go see if Sara is awake. They needed to talk about what happened. She was right. Kesh was on board now, trying to get people she trusted into places they normally wouldn’t be able to get to. He’d already started doing a little research into what “The Gate” could be. The only problem was that they’d been found out. People would be pulled, locations changed, and--worst of all--Sara was probably in more danger than when they started. She could handle herself. He’d seen that. A part of him wanted nothing more than to keep her at his side at all costs; he’d tear a part any threat to her. He kept that underneath a layer of common sense. Right now, with the condition he was in, they’d both end up dead.  


He read through the datapad, a report on some human who’d been shot in the right leg. There was a discrepancy that had a witness saying he’d been shot by a woman in a purple helmet and the man’s report that one of the rogue militia members had shot him. He’d been found a few feet away from Sara, but she had been shot when he found her. Tiran took in a sharp breath. Seeing her bleeding on the ground, the red blood staining her dress. He hadn’t cared that he himself was bleeding as well. Spirits, he must have carried her all the way to the medbay. Dr. Carlyle had called him an idiot for it. Tiran shouldn’t have let them be separated during that escape.  


He signed off on the report, starting a new pile that he’d have some cadet deliver once they were all finished. Why did all these medical reports have to come to him? A chief medical doctor should be doing this. He’d already had to prepare three letters in forming still asleep families that their loved ones were dead. Another twenty or so letters informing people still in cryo that their loved ones were now exiled due to rebellious activity. He sighed. They needed to stop people from thinking there was no other way out, but the only way he could see was force. The Initiative was a mess.  


The next report was for Lizeth T’mena. So, the asari had survived being shot, but she was in critical condition. Dr. Carlyle’s notes said that she might not wake up from her coma, but he’d do his best to make sure she did. There was also a note from Tann saying that, if she woke up, she needed to be exiled immediately. His mandibles twitched. He’d made her a promise to not arrest anyone involved in exchange for the information, that promise could still be good if she recovered. Tann didn’t need to know anything.  


Putting the report in the signed pile, he grabbed another one to read when someone walked in. His subvocals let out an annoyed and slightly hostile noise. In walked Tann. The salarian looked simultaneously like he’d just been called into a parent-teacher conference about an unruly child and that someone just told him he’d won a gift basket at a raffle. Oddly enough, Tiran has seen both of those expressions on multiple occasions since coming to Andromeda. Humans loved raffles. At any rate, Tann walked into the room and stood in front of him. Lording over him was actually a more appropriate term. Tiran did his best to keep himself in check. The last thing this station needed right now was everyone visually at each other’s throats...again.  


“Kandros, how are those reports coming?” Tann asked, but sounded like he wanted a very specific answer.  


Tiran felt himself go a little stiff, much to the distress of his stab wound. “They should be done by 1200 hours tomorrow, barring any distractions.” _Like a certain director who keeps trying to control everyone._  


“Excellent,” Tann said, sounding pleased. “Speaking of distractions, I would like to tell you that one is no longer going to be bothering you.”  


“Is it you?” _Why did I just say that?_ He didn’t try to recover the response.  


Tann shook his head. “No. Miss Ryder has requested that you no longer contact her.”  


Tiran’s mandibles twitched. It took most of his will to keep himself from jumping out of his chair and strangle Tann. He squeezed the datapad in his hand. “If this is some twisted way of saying that you want us--”  


“Nothing of the sort,” Tann said, holding up a hand. “Dr. Carlyle told me when she was awake and I went to speak with her. During our talk, she mentioned that she wanted to drop this investigation, stating that she was too shaken up to continue. Further discussion prompted her to say that she felt guilty for distracting you from your duties.”  


He stood up, keeping a firm grip on the datapad in his hand. “That doesn’t sound like my...that doesn’t sound like her. I need to go speak to her for myself.”  


“Miss Ryder doesn’t want to speak with you, Kandros,” Tann said. “Perhaps it’s because she feels like you had abandoned her and she got shot because of that. I suggest you get your reports done and put all this nonsense out of your head. The Nexus leadership will be having a meeting at one o’clock tomorrow, I will see you there.”  


With that, Tann left. Tiran didn’t sit down, nor did he put anything out of his head. His side screamed at him in pain. This wasn’t right. He didn’t...she wasn’t...he’d never...if only he’d held onto her instead of allowing them to get seperated. None of this made sense. She wouldn’t just give up like this. Not that he knew her very well, it wasn’t like they’d been best friends before this, but he’d watched her defy bad orders because of what she thought was right. It was a trait he admired in her. Turians didn’t do that. He snapped the datapad in his hand in half. Turians followed bad orders with a grumble, just like he was doing now.  


He sat back down, breathing hard from the pain. Picking up another datapad, he made a mental note to ask Sajax for another copy of the one he’d broken. Maybe if he’d listened to Tann in the first place, Sara wouldn’t have been shot. So much for trying not to be “the good one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I might be a little biased against Tann...  
> Also, catch Kandros's mandibles twitching like a Bethesda glitch because he's so annoyed


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_*In the Med Bay the next day*_

Hurt. Confused. Depressed. Sara had to hide it all when her brother called her. The call was out of the blue and had worried her a little bit; Scott didn’t like to call during missions. He said it was because he didn’t want her to worry. She knew it was really because he usually forgot or was too excited to calm down enough for a civil conversation. At any rate, she gave her best smile as he talked excitedly about this place called Havaral. It was pretty there. He’d send her pictures. Apparently, he’d found survivors from Ark Natanus there. She wanted to go tell Tiran, but he didn’t want to speak with her anymore. He would have been super happy about them being found. 

“So, anyway, sis,” Scott said, apparently sitting in the very nice bedroom the pathfinder stayed in. “I completely understand your attraction to aliens now.” 

_Oh, good lord._ “Then you owe me three months of crap you gave me after my hook up.”

Scott laughed. It was good to hear him laugh. It was good to hear something positive other than however well Jim’s project was going. He still hadn’t told her what it was, but apparently, the distraction that had been stopping his progress was gone. At least someone’s life was going well. She was currently under strict orders not to leave the hospital, complete with a nurse constantly at her side so she wouldn’t escape. Harry wanted to make sure there wasn’t any extra damage. Not that she blamed him for being to careful, but she’d heard from the grapevine that Tiran had been allowed to leave without even a proper amount of medigel and was back to work. First of all, very irresponsible on the doctor’s part. Second, she felt fine. Why was she stuck here? 

“Well, sis, I need to show you someone,” Scott said, getting off the bed and putting his arm at his side so Sara could only see a sideways view. Gotta love omni-tools. “But this stays between you and me.”

At least Sara could feel like she was moving. She’d been stuck in this bed for the past 24 hours. From this view, she could see that the Tempest was sleek, new-looking, and kind of empty looking. There were no other crew members to operate the ship. Back in the Alliance, even small ships had a crew of at least fifty people for all the logistical stuff that needed to be done. She guessed that, with a lot of people either dead or in cryo and resources scarce, it was easier to do a small crew. It made her a little nervous for Scott, though. If anything went wrong on that ship, there weren’t as many who could not only catch it, but there also weren’t as many people who could help fix it.

Scott walked up a ladder and across a clear catwalk to an open room with a hologram of the Nexus on it. No one seemed to be there at the moment. Scott positioned himself at a computer and angled his omnitool at a small room off to the side where a person from a species she’d never seen before was working. Scott spoke softly, saying, “His name is Jaal and I’m in love.”

“I can see why.” Sara said, nodding in approval. Then she laughed. “I don’t think that’s what Dad meant when he said ‘do what no human has done before.’”

Dad had said that to them when he’d been coming up with what to say before they touched down. She heard that line hadn’t made the final cut. It killed her that she had been out cold for that. Maybe, if she’d been awake, she could have stopped it. At night, when she lay awake and unable to stop dwelling on this whole mess of a trip, she imagined being there. She imagined being able to stop it. Everything would always happen in slow motion. She was able to grab either Scott or Dad before they fell. No debris hit anyone’s helmet. No one suffocated to death. Dad was still here. Everything was fine. 

Scott raised his omnitool so she could see his face again. He looked so much like Dad. “So, sis, anyone special in your life?”

“Um…” Sara felt her cheeks go hot. “Well, there was someone but I don’t know if it’s going anywhere...especially after a horrible...first date…”

Yeah, first date. She wished it was a first date instead of a dumpster fire information grab that ended in a shootout. He didn’t even want to talk with her. Tann had said so. Did she believe it? Not fully, but Tiran hadn’t even come to check on her condition. There had to be some truth to it. She also didn’t have the resources or the protection to continue the investigation. Hopefully, they scared whoever it was off. Showed them that they weren’t going down without a fight. Hopefully Tiran was on the lookout now and wouldn’t let anything happen without making this group’s lives a living hell. 

Scott laughed. “What did you do? Scare him off with one of your passionate rants?” 

“For your information, one of my passionate rants made Tiran go on a date with me in the first place!” 

She immediately regretted her entire existence. The wall suddenly took up her screen as Scott did his weird wheeze laugh that sounded like he was dying. Off screen, someone with a deep voice and a nice accent called his name and then she heard the sound of someone running. That person asked if Scott was alright. In the meantime, Sara felt her face going red. She couldn’t speak. It was like when you brought someone home to your parents and just knew they were going to launch into the embarrassing stories but there was nothing you could do to stop them. 

After a little bit, Scott stopped laughing as hard and put himself right. When Sara was brought up to look at his face again, seeing that Jaal was standing beside him looking concerned. “Jaal…” Scott wheezed, “Jaal, this is my sister, Sara.”

Sara waved awkwardly with her arm that didn’t have the IV in it. Jaal waved back really excitedly. “Pleasure to meet you, Sara Ryder. Scott has told us much about you.” 

“Thanks, Jaal. I can’t wait until you guys are back on the Nexus so I can meet you in person.” Sara said, giving Jaal a winning smile. “Maybe I’ll be able to give you the grand tour...and tell you all about Scott’s--our childhood.”

_Yeah, if no one shoots Scott when you guys land._ Scott composed himself some more. “Okay, so Tiran? Tiran Kandros? That’s who you went on a terrible date with? That guy not only stopped working for five seconds to go out with you, but then you scared him away? Wow, sis, I guess I’m the only one with any hope in the family.”

“At least I had the guts to act on my feelings, Scotland!” 

He suddenly looked serious and then said, in a soft voice, “Low blow, Sara, low blow.” Then he started laughing again. “Well, sis, I’m gonna have to let you go. I gotta explain to Jaal what Scotland is and why you called me that. Talk to you soon, Sar.” 

“Bye, Scott. Kick ass for me. And bye, Jaal! I really look forward to meeting you.” 

With that, the omnitool clicked off and Sara was suddenly alone in the medbay. Well, as alone as one could be. Most people had been cleared out of her immediate vicinity since they only had minor injuries. Everyone else was either busy or on too many painkillers to even care about what she’d been saying. Jim had gone out to download some vids off the database for them to watch. He was a really good friend. Plus, he couldn’t go into work with his leg. It was a win-win for both of them really. The only odd thing was that he’d been gone for a good two hours now. It didn’t take that long to download vids off the database and there really was never a line for vids. Not since people had downloaded their favorites to their own devices and shared them with their friends. 

She laid back on the bed and sighed. Scott was a good egg. It was good that he was the pathfinder. He didn’t get people needlessly stabbed or shot when he was on a mission. People didn’t outright ask to never see him again when things went sideways. In fact...things going sideways was a given in any military situation. A soldier worth their salt, like Tiran, would know that and be prepared for it to happen. If it had been a grave miscalculation on any of their parts, tempers would flare and people would say things afterword, but it sometimes came with the job. There was no way either of them would know that simply asking around would end in a shooting. 

Wait…

She sat up and called over the nurse. Technically, Harry wanted to keep her here for observation, but she was fine. She felt fine. Besides, the medigel they’d used on her had knitted her together pretty well and she only felt minor pain when she moved. No. This was much more important. She needed to save Scott. The nurse came over and only gave a few minor objections before removing Sara’s IV. If Tiran really did never want to see her again, she would get dragged out of the Militia HQ by one of the militia people. Probably get thrown in jail for a night too. It didn’t matter. She was going to see Tiran and they were going to finish this thing. Tann be damned. 

A wave of pain shot through her as she stood up. It was fine. She walked as quickly as she could out of the medbay incase Harry noticed she was escaping. Okay. She just needed to get to Operations without anything going horribly wrong. A.K.A. she couldn’t get caught by Tann. Would he actually exile her? Probably not, but her punishment would probably be equally terrible. Well, she could always escape. Become a vigilante. Destroy this “Only Generation” group. Save Scott. Rub it in his face. Sneak back on to the Nexus to kiss Tiran...okay, maybe not that last one. 

“Sara, where are you going?” Jim limped towards her, the metal brace on his leg thumping against the metal ground. “You’re walking like a zombie for God’s sake.”

She didn’t stop heading towards the tram. “I’ve got a mission to complete, Jim!” 

Not even listening to his response, Sara continued on her way. He’ll understand. She’ll explain everything to him later...eventually. It’d be fine. She only stopped for a breather when she waited for the transport to get to her. Thankfully, it wasn’t a long wait. The doors slid open and she got in, only focused on her task at hand and not who was in there with her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I've been going through a lot and have been writing some other stuff! Thank you all for reading! You're all fantastic!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_*Operations*_

Sajax had forced Tiran to take a break after the meeting with the rest of the Initiative leaders. He didn’t blame her. Tann had continually berated both him and a non-present Sara for painting the Initiative in a bad light before telling him patrols needed to be increased across the board. Saying that there weren’t enough people in the militia to do that made matters worse. Tiran had bit his tongue after that. Nodded when spoken to. Made sure to seem like Tann had his utmost respect. It was just like when he was in bootcamp. The only difference was that his SOs then _did_ have his respect. 

He limped away from the Militia HQ towards the databases where a lot of old Milky Way information was stored. There was a book he wanted to download. If he was going to have down time, he might as well do something productive. Relatively productive. The book he was looking into was a work of fiction, but a few people in the militia had been talking about it. Plus, on Sara’s social network profile, it was listed as one of her favorites. He’d looked her up after she first approached him to see if she had come in contact with anyone suspicious prior to the email. Most of the stuff was the basics about her. Then there were the comments of people asking about the pathfinder that she had ignored, even the hostile ones. He’d sent people to investigate those, but, they’d just been empty threats. 

There were only two people in the databases at the moment who seemed too engrossed in their conversation to even be paying attention to him. He eased himself into the chair at the terminal on the other side of them, obscured by the terminal itself. Once the pain had subsided, he typed in _Way of Kings_ by Brandon Sanderson, specifying he would prefer a version in the standard turian language or the Milky Way standard. He knew human languages, but he wanted to read this as quickly as possible. It was hard to tell when he was going to get some time to himself again. 

Since the book was older and not considered a human classic, the only copies were in human languages. Well, his English wasn’t fantastic, but maybe he could ask Sara...no, she didn’t want to see him again. Then again, did he really believe Tann? It didn’t seem like her to ask someone else to fully deal with a problem she was having. Especially if it was personal. Besides, Tann seemed way too happy about a major person in the Pathfinder’s life being upset with the leader of the militia. That could create more problems down the road. Something wasn’t right, but he didn’t want to exacerbate the situation any more. He started to download the book onto his omnitool. 

“...so, she’s not going to look into this anymore,” one of the humans said. “You think we scared her off?”

_That sounds interesting._ “No. I think Tann broke her heart, telling her that turian bastard never wanted to look at her again. Besides, I heard him put her under house arrest until her brother gets back.Not that he’s going to be able to talk with her when he does.” Huh. Are they talking about Sara? “What about the high and mighty turian?”

“Limping. Peretti did a number on him before the spiky asshole killed him. Brutally, I might add. Still don’t believe his whole shtick about just wanting to run away from home.” Tiran’s mandibles twitched. “I heard from the grapevine that he was ordered not to investigate further either. He’s also swamped with work. Between that and the stab wound, I don’t think we’re going to need to worry about him.”

“Excellent. I just wish I got the chance to put a bullet in his head,” the two sounded like they were walking away. “Damn turians still think they can lord over us humans, even in this shithole of a galaxy. Well, I saw her first and I’m gonna be the only one she can lean on.”

Tiran tried to bury himself into the monitor as best he could while trying to see if he could spot the people talking. Unfortunately, they went in the other direction. He just caught the other one saying, “Please let your dick know that she’s our enemy right now.” 

They were gone. Tiran stood up, suppressing the urge to cry out at the searing pain in his side. Sara needed to hear about this. Sara needed to get away from whoever that other man was. Damn Tann. This was a matter of public safety. Peretti was the last name of the man who had put a knife in him; he’d signed off on the report himself. He hadn’t brutally killed the man either. These guys sounded like they were going to believe whatever narrative made them look better, though. Something was off about that conversation. From the arrests he made, the group they were looking for was multi-species. That one guy sounded like a raging xenophobe all because…

...because…

...because Sara liked Tiran over whoever that ass was. 

His mandibles twitched and his subvocals let out a little happy noise that he hoped no one noticed. She’d been upset that Tann had told her he’d never wanted to see her again. He was going to kill that salarian. Right after he made it very clear how right Sara had been. Tiran let out a dry laugh at the thought of Tann’s face when that happened. If that idiot didn’t pull some invisible strings to stop him from completing this mission he and Sara had started. Tiran wouldn’t go down that easy though. 

Now wasn’t the time for this. Sara was in danger. He walked towards the transport, hoping that he might be able to catch whoever had spoken in the act if he got there on time. Sajax gave him a nod as he passed by the Militia HQ, thinking he was heading home. He gave her a nod in response. When this was all over, he was going to owe her a few drinks for not listening to her. He was her superior officer, but she assumed control when it was clear he currently wasn’t fit for duty. Currently, he was doing something he would reprimand anyone else for doing, but there was a clear and present danger. That was important. 

Thank the spirits he didn’t have to contend with stairs to get to the transport. He made his way down. The other transport must have already left because he was the only one waiting. He hit the button. After a few agonizing minutes, mandibles twitching rapidly the entire time, the doors opened and he was able to board. He pressed the button for the medbay before taking a seat right near the doors. Wasting time was not an option. 

Even though the ride was relatively short, every minute felt like a year. He hadn’t felt like this since coming back from being captured by Kett, just waiting for a sign that the Initiative hadn’t failed. That they weren’t going to die out here alone. Luckily, the transport made no other stops. He probably would have been more agitated at that point. 

There was a small ding to signify his stop was nearing. He hoisted himself up, doing his best to ignore the pain. As the transport came to a stop, he did his best to not lean on his wounded side too much. He must be a sorry sight. The doors started to slide open as soon as it came to a full stop. He could hear voices on the other side. Dammit. He would need to get off quickly to avoid the probable crowd that was going to be getting on. People tended not to care about injured people when they needed to get somewhere. 

He started to make his way to the door when someone did get on. One short human with brown hair who was limping just as badly as he was. Sara! She breezed right past him. It was like she was on a mission of her own. Well, at least he didn’t need to worry about her being in danger. She was still hurt. She should be getting medical help and it wasn’t helping his peace of mind that she was walking around. But she was here. It wasn’t good that he still didn’t know the identity of whoever had been talking about her. But she was here. He couldn’t stop a threat that he didn’t have all the details on. That was most of this investigation, though, right? He heard the door slide closed as Sara hit the button for Operations. Well, he wouldn’t get anything done standing around like a complete idiot. Time to see if either Tann or whoever that one ass was was telling the truth. 

“Sara?” 

She probably would have jumped if she wasn’t hurt. Turning around slowly, she asked, “Tiran?” 

When she saw that, yes, it was him. She did something he was not expecting. In fact, it probably would have hurt less if he had been expecting it. She basically flung herself at him. Arms around his neck, her own feet off the floor so he had to put his arms around her so she wouldn’t fall. Then she kissed him. It was a human gesture of affection. Considering where she’d kissed him, a _romantic gesture._ His face went hot. His subvocals let out a shocked, but very, very happy noise. 

He watched her cheeks go red. “Oh...uh...I didn’t think I’d see you…” 

“Tann lied and can ‘go to hell’ as humans put it,” he said, putting his forehead to hers. 

She grinned. “You came to finish the investigation?”

He set her down, ignoring the intense pain that came after the pressure Sara provided was gone. “Yes. Was there anyone spending time with you in the hospital?” 

“Besides the nurses? Just my friend Jim, why?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, I got impatient with myself and decided not to drag this out too much. Sorry if it feels rushed! If anyone has suggestions I will fix it! I'm also going to be posting some minor edits of previous chapters! Thank you for reading! You're all wonderful!
> 
> P.S. The book mentioned in this chapter is 100% fantastic and I would recommend it to everyone!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

_ *Sara’s Apartment* _

Both Sara and Tiran were sitting on Sara’s bed, strategizing about how to tackle this whole situation. Sara herself was fuming. Jim. Jim, the guy who she thought was her best friend on this god damned initiative, was not only a traitor, but a traitor who wanted to kill her brother. Why? Why would he want to do that? She had given him some very sensitive information that showed Scott was doing his job. It didn’t make sense. Oh my God. Tiran was being kind of… vague about the conversation he had heard, but she didn’t blame him for that. All the pain he was in was probably clouding his head a little. Hopefully not too much, though. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t enjoying him holding her hand. 

“Are you sure it was Jim?” Sara asked for the tenth time, not wanting to burn a bridge if the information was wrong. “I mean, I am a hundred percent down for shooting out his kneecaps if it is because no one messes with the Ryders, but are you sure?” 

Tiran shook his head, mandibles twitching. “I didn’t see his face. I just know what I heard.” 

This was a pickle. A big pickle. It honestly could be anyone who had been in the medbay when Tann had thrown his temper tantrum and lied to her. Oh, she was so going to get payback for that. No one was allowed to play with her emotions, especially for some weird political gain. What makes it worse was that neither of them had any support from anyone else on this station because of that salarian. It wasn’t like Sara herself was the Pathfinder who could rally everyone to her and overrule Tann. They couldn’t contact Scott either. Tiran was now basically in time out, especially since he had been injured with very little medical help. That was another thing she was pissed about. Oh boy, there was going to be hell to pay once this mess was done. 

She leaned against his good side, groaning in frustration. “We still have to do something. Maybe I could, like, talk to him. I mean, he’d probably lie if he was involved, but I still could.” 

“You’re not doing that alone.”  
“Aw, you’re being protective,” she said. “I’m still going to do it though and he is probably going to be less than forthcoming if you’re glowering at him from behind my shoulder.” 

Tiran seemed about to argue back, but suddenly there was a knock at Sara’s door. They looked at each other, Tiran trying to see if she was expecting anybody. She shook her head. Standing up, Tiran pulled out his gun and Sara reached for one of the kitchen knives. Technically, as a civilian, she wasn’t allowed to own a gun so the knife was the best option she had. Not that it would do much. She was still injured and close combat had never really been her strong suit. That was Scott’s expertise. Harry was probably going to actually kill her when she stumbled back to medbay after this was over, but there was an emergency and Scott’s life was at stake. She nodded to Tiran before turning on the cam outside. 

Both of them sighed in relief when the monitor showed the person knocking to be Lieutenant Sajax, holding a datapad. Sara set down the knife and opened the door. “Hi, Lieutenant, what brings you to my apartment?”

“I’m looking for Tiran. People say they saw him heading towards medbay and I wanted to make--” She looked past Sara to see the person in question slowly putting away his gun. “Well, that answers that question. Sir, we found something you might be interested in. You weren’t answering any messages, so I had to come find you myself.”

There was a good five minutes that the three stood there in seemingly complete silence. Sara watched both Tiran’s and Sajax’s mandibles twitch like they were having some sort of conversation. They probably were, considering what Sara knew about turian subvocals. Sara debated on whether or not to say something. Would it be rude? Yeah, it would be like interrupting a conversation with unnecessary commentary. Did it feel weird to awkwardly stand here? Also, yeah. 

Luckily, Sajax broke the silence first. “I’ll be sure to stop the gossip, sir. May I come in?”

Sara nodded, stepping aside to let the Lieutenant in. “So, I know Tann doesn’t want us investigating this anymore, but one of the analysts found this when combing through the security footage. Don’t worry, I made sure we could trust this one.” 

The datapad flickered to life and displayed a grainy image of what appeared to be a group meeting at…

“Is that the platform next to the immigration office?” Sara asked.

She’d been there once after she’d woken up to drop off reports. It was always a little full now that there was one colony looking for settlers and people generally hung around there awaiting news on the pathfinder. It was easier to see when a planet went from red to green rather than wait for the full news report. A group meeting there would be easy to hide, but also very risky. Militia were usually in full number there. Then again, hadn’t Tiran just investigated a bunch of his own people for being apart of this? Oh man. 

“Yup. Now, it does look like a normal day, right? Except,” she flipped to the next photo, “right here.” Most of the people in the group in question were wearing that insignia she had seen at the party shootout. The initiative symbol with the red X through it. “If you watch the full hour, they take those symbols off before leaving.” 

Sara kept looking on in disbelief. “And, what? Everyone there thought they were LARPing?” 

“People tend not to notice things in crowds, I guess,” Sajax said with a shrug. 

Sara took a closer look at the picture. That one...a guy standing at an angle to the camera...he looked kind of familiar? Nice face, generic western human haircut, it could be anybody. Except, she knew that smile. She’d seen it a bunch of times over the past few days. It was Jim! Jim, wearing the armband of the people who wanted to murder her brother! Tiran was right! Oh...oh...Tann was going to have to exile her outside of the Heleus cluster after what she was going to do to him. He had been her friend! Apparently, he had some weird crush on her and still wanted to just kill her brother. He was also wanted to hurt Tiran. Oh, he was not getting away with any of this. 

“Where are you going?” She heard Tiran ask. 

She didn’t hear him mumble something to Sajax. Instead, she was on her way to visit her dear friend. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I know this chapter wasn't my best work either and it's kinda short...Thanks for reading! You're all wonderful!


End file.
